> lindnkev@scn.org wrote:
> "I have been paging through a great birthday gift, the Official Tour de
> France Centennial 1903-2003. It appears that the riders stopped carrying
> tires wrapped around
> their shoulders in 1956. Was there a rule change that year? Was
> assistance from support vehicles disallowed until then?
>
> Put that book on your wish list, it is loaded with awesome photos!"
To which Mordecai added:
> That's a very interesting observation. I don't know if there was a new
> rule in 1956 against tires around one's shoulders, but from the pictures
> it seems that no one was doing that any more. And yet in 1955 everyone
> seemed to be doing it. Whether there was a rule or not, by 1956
> extra-sportif sponsors (Nivea cream, Carpano vermouth, St. Raphael
> aperitifs, Faema coffee-machines among them) had firmly established
> themselves in the sport. So I suppose that with the new source of
> sponsorship, support cars with spare wheels were now more available to
> riders in case of a flat tire. The cars may have been only Citroen
> 2CV's ("deux chevaux") that huffed and puffed up the mountains, but they
> were better than having to remove the wheel oneself and change the tire.
>
> Here are two observations of mine. Collared jerseys in the pro peloton
> went out in 1960 or 1961. And when everyone else was still using
> handlebar bottle-cages in addition to the one on the down-tube,
> Anquetil, in all the pictures I've seen, didn't use them. One bottle
> was sufficient for him.
Not all riders wore the tires all the time. The team leaders usually wore them whenever there was a good chance that there would be a breakaway wher domestiques would not be able to follow. I have a photo of Charly Gaul in the 1958 Tour de France where he is still wearing the tire. The first non bike maker sponsors seemed to be tire makers: Hutchinson, Pirelli, Ursus, Dunlop, Wolber, Gardiol, d'alessandro and Clement. Nivea appeared in 1953, as did other brands that I don't recognise as bike makers: Levrieri (with Benotto bikes) JB Louvet with Dilecta. In 1955, there was the Eldorado (Girardengo bikes), Ignis, L'Avenir, L'Express, Chlorodont. In 1956: Vitabrill, Bif, Carpano, Superga, ICEP, Italcover, St Raphael, Quinquina, San Pellegrino, Faema, Van Hauwaert...
--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ